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Several agencies including the Greenwood Police Department and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department responded to a shooting in the food court at the Greenwood Park Mall on Sunday, July 17, 2022.
Doug Jaggers/WFYIUpdated at 1:05 a.m. on July 18
A man opened fire in the food court of a Greenwood shopping mall Sunday evening killing three people and injuring two before he was shot and killed by an armed civilian.
Greenwood Police Department Chief Jim Ison said Johnson County 911 received multiple calls reporting shots fired in the Greenwood Park Mall around 6:05 p.m.
“It appears that he had a rifle with several magazines of ammunition. Entered the food court and began shooting,” Ison said.
A 22-year old Bartholomew County resident legally carrying a firearm at the mall “observed the shooting in progress and shot the shooter,” Ison said. Police and elected officials credited the person with saving lives.
“The real hero of the day was the citizen who was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop this shooter almost as soon as he began,” Ison said.
READ MORE: What Indiana's permitless handgun carry law does and doesn't do
The names of the victims were not released Sunday night. Police identified them as four females and one male. The two people injured were reported to be in stable condition, including a 12-year-old-girl with a minor injury.
The shooter also has not been identified, and investigators do not have a motive.
“We are doing the best we can right now," Ison said. "They have the best in their federal law enforcement and local law enforcement and state law enforcement officials here trying to get answers and make sense of what happened.”
Police said they would provide more details Monday.
This mass shooting is among the more than 50 recorded by The Gun Violence Archive across the United States in July. So far this year, the nonprofit research group has verified more than 350 mass shootings. It defines a mass shooting as "a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident."
Greenwood is a suburb just south of Indianapolis in Johnson County with a population of just over 60,000 people.
Contact WFYI managing editor for daily news Doug Jaggers at djaggers@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @WFYIDoug.
Contact WFYI education reporter Lee V. Gaines at lgaines@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @LeeVGaines.
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